* [[Ian McKellen]] has expressed interest in returning as [[Gandalf]].

+

* [[Andy Serkis]] has expressed interest in returning as [[Gollum]].

* [[Andy Serkis]] has expressed interest in returning as [[Gollum]].

* [[Christopher Lee]] has said he would like to be involved in the film.

* [[Christopher Lee]] has said he would like to be involved in the film.

Revision as of 13:02, 2 May 2008

New Line Cinema and MGM announced on December 18th, 2007 that two films based on The Hobbit, "'The Hobbit' and its sequel" will be made immediately and shot simultaneously, with principal photography to take place in 2009, and a release date of 2010 and 2011. New Line Cinema has also announced the litigation between Peter Jackson and them has been settled. New Line Cinema has started an "Official Movie Blog" for the films at TheHobbitBlog.com.

The Hobbit film

Sequel

Little is known about the sequel to The Hobbit film aside from it will be filmed at the same time as the first film, and has a release date of 2011. The film is assumed to portray events after The Hobbit, but before The Fellowship of the Ring, drawing extensively from material in the Appendices found at the end of The Return of the King (leading some to dub it the "Appendix movie")

Possible focuses:

The White Council meets to discuss The Necromancer

The White Council attack The Necromancer’s stronghold at Dol Guldur. Sauron abandons Dol Guldur and takes up residence in Mordor.

Gollum leaves the mountain, searching for the “thief” Baggins.

Sauron declared himself openly, starting to gather power to Mordor.

Aragorn and Arwen's love story.

Aragorn's ascent from a young man first meeting Arwen into a seasoned traveler and warrior, meeting Gandalf, and his career in Gondor under the pseudonym "Thorongil" driving back an invasion by the Corsairs of Umbar.

Unconfirmed people involved

Locations

Pre-production on recreating the Shire and planting foliage will begin this summer [3]

Special effects

Weta will continue their role in handling the special effects. Del Toro has stated he wishes to focus more on animatronics for the films.

"The only thing I will be pushing for more in these films that the other three are full animatronics and animatronic creatures enhanced with CGI, as opposed to CGI creatures themselves. We really want to take the state-of-the-art animatronics and take a leap ten years into the future with the technology we will develop for the creatures in the movie. We have every intention to do for animatronics and special effects what the other films did for virtual reality."